Australia has distributed 18m doses of Covid-19 vaccine to neighbouring countries but is being urged to dedicate money and resources to Covax – the global vaccination mechanism – so that the world’s least-inoculated countries can access vaccines.
Australia’s “vaccine diplomacy”, focusing on bilateral donations to the Pacific and south-east Asia has come at the expense of commitments to the global Covax facility, to which it has committed zero doses and only $130m.
